Employment Web Sites Ramp Up Direct Marketing

by lisa ~ February 12, 2009

“Make hay while the sun shines.” We all know this means take advantage of favorable conditions because they may not last. Employment Web sites such as SimplyHired.com and Monster.com are taking advantage of the current economic situation to promote their services directly to job seekers.

DMNews.com, the bible of the direct marketing industry, says the job search category was the fastest growing one for Americans last year. “The number of visitors in the job search category has grown 51% to 18.8 million visitors, according to ComScore Inc.,” wrote Dianna Dilworth. “During the final months of 2008, which typically experience seasonal softness in job searching behavior due to the holidays, traffic to job sites was some of the busiest in 2008.”

What is direct marketing? It’s something all companies do whether or not they label it as such. Everyone receives traditional direct mail, such as postcards and letters that promote everything from continuing education courses to carpet cleaning services, but the category is much broader than that. It encompasses promotional magazines, free-standing inserts, catalogs, email, online video, and social networking, to name a few elements.

The Direct Marketing Association says that direct-response advertising accounts for 52.1% of all ad expenditures in the U.S. The resulting sales - which reach roughly $2.057 trillion in this country -comprise approximately 10% of our GDP.

It makes me wonder if there are other segments of the economy that could take advantage of this recession. Financial planners and life insurers come to mind. Maybe that’s because I’ve seen a recent uptick in the number of TV commercials aired by my former employer, AXA Equitable Life Insurance Co., featuring its 800-pound spokes-primate. It makes sense, right? Don’t ask people to spend more money; instead, offer to help them hold onto the money they’ve still got.

To read the full article, “Economy spurs job site growth,” click here: http://adage.com/article?article_id=134402

Lisa Tibbitts is a corporate communications expert with an MBA in marketing. She is based in New York.